Digital Commons Network^™

The Bricks In Action : Women's Public Housing Activism In Louisville, Kentucky, 1958-1970., Aletia M. Robey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a historical examination of women's public housing activism in Louisville, Kentucky from 1958 to 1970. With the proclamation of the War on Poverty by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, poverty stricken neighborhoods were provided with federal funding to initiate community action by public housing residents. This thesis illustrates how women living in Louisville's public housing communities organized grassroots community action groups and eventually utilized federal funds from the War on Poverty to initiate social change. Louisville activists organized by means of coalition building, increased education, and coordinated protests. Grassroots organizing in Louisville led to an established …

The Whore Paradox : "Rational" Condom Use Decisions Among Prostitutes In The Context Of Stigma And Patriarchal Bargaining., Maggie Mccandless Stone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High-risk sexual activity involved in prostitution is a criminal justice and public health issue heightened by the potential transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) as a result of engaging in certain unprotected sex acts. This constitutes a significant health problem suitable for discourse on social policy. The work adds to the extant prostitution literature by providing an in-depth qualitative examination of female prostitutes resulting in the proposal of a new theoretical framework, the whore paradox. The theory provides explanatory insight into the sexual health decisions of prostitutes and has potential applications to other deviant and risk-taking populations. Policy implications include …

Disaster And Poverty : The Differential Impacts Of Disaster On The Poor In The Gulf Coast Region., Abu Muhammad Sufiyan 1979-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Low-income and vulnerable populations that suffer most in natural disasters are females, children, elderly, disabled, and ethnic minorities This dissertation explores the association between natural disaster and poverty conditions among socially disadvantaged subgroups within the social, economic, and political contexts of the disaster affected regions in the Gulf Coast States. It argues that poverty conditions increase the negative impacts of disaster for socially vulnerable populations. This dissertation advocates incorporating the vulnerabilities of the marginalized population in each phase of disaster management planning, from mitigation to recovery. The study uses correlation and regression analyses to find the association between disaster impacts …

The Rise Of Bulgarian Nationalism And Russia's Influence Upon It., Lin Wenshuang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The exercise of nationalism is the assertion of the political sovereignty of a community in the form of a nation-state. In the case of Bulgaria, nationalism, in practice, was a long journey towards the establishment of a Bulgarian nation-state. This dissertation aims to clarify the place and role of nationalism in the reconstruction of the Bulgarian state and to examine to what extent the development of Bulgarian nationalism was influenced by Russia at the vital stage - the 1870s, when the nation fought hard against Ottoman rule and finally achieved national liberation. My motivation for examining Russo-Bulgarian historical, political and …

Informal College Study Groups : Gender And Group Homophily., Brandon Scott Mcreynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The examination of undergraduate informal college study groups offers not only the ability to better understand student culture, but also the ability to look further into the role that gender plays in a student’s college experience. Further, it is hypothesized that students form and maintain these groups based off homophily. This study uses a mixed methods approach to examine how males and females experience informal study groups differently, along with how a student’s gender informs his or her perception of the group’s purpose, formation and function. Themes such as trust, along with a student’s pre-college background and major, emerged in …

Gender Stereotyping Within Career And Technical Education : Exploring Relationships Among Gender, Coursetaking, And Outcomes Of High School Cte Students., Stephanie A. Fluhr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored he relationships among gender, coursetaking, and student outcomes of high school CTE students. The variables analyzed within this study were selected based upon an extensive review of existing literature on gender, stereotypes, occupation, nontraditional careers, and CTE coursetaking and policy. The sample examined in this study came from a Midwestern state’s database of CTE students that were enrolled in high school CTE courses from 2010-2012. Operating under a theory that gender segregation with CTE leads to a continuance of gender segregation in the workforce at large, the purpose of this study was to add to the existing …

Down Comes The Mountain : Coal Mining And Health In Central Appalachia From 2000 To 2010., James Kent Pugh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachia is one of the unhealthiest and most economically disadvantaged regions in America. It has higher rates of diseases (including heart disease and cancer) than the rest of the United States. Past research posits that low socioeconomic conditions in Appalachia are the main determinants of health disparities, and a burgeoning body of literature is examines the relationship between coal mining and health. The latter shows that, when controlling for socioeconomic status, health status remains significantly lower in coal-producing, Appalachian counties compared to non-coal producing Appalachian counties. While previous studies examine coal production over one or two years, they do not …

"They Had No Key That Would Fit My Mouth" : Women's Struggles With Cultural Constructions Of Madness In Victorian And Modern England And America., Leslie Ann Harper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since Elaine Showalter’s publication of The Female Malady in 1985, various scholars have addressed the association between women and mental illness in Victorian and Modern culture. However, little attention has been devoted to how this association impacted the lives of actual women. In this dissertation, I analyze how the gendered construction of mental illness affected the lives of individual women living in Victorian and Modern England and America. My study reveals that the cultural association between women and madness made women vulnerable to unwarranted institutionalization. Women who rebelled against social conventions were particularly at risk, and the public was aware …

Early Detection And Control Of Potential Pandemics., Shengpeng Jin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the centuries, human beings have been inflicted with a variety of contagious diseases, resulting in tens of millions of respiratory illnesses and deaths worldwide. Early detection of disease spread facilitates timely responses that can greatly reduce its impact on a population. Therefore, this early information is a major public health objective and is crucial for policy makers and public health officials responsible for protecting the public from the spread of contagious diseases. Current indicators of the spread of contagious outbreaks lag behind its actual spread, leaving no time for a planned response. The studies of Christakis et al. in …

Investigation Of Factors Related To Performance And Retention Of Engineering Students., Nora B. Honken

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was part of an ongoing effort to improve retention of engineering students at the J. B. Speed School of Engineering at the University of Louisville. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to gain a better understanding of the relationship among interest in engineering, performance and first-year retention in engineering, and whether this relationship is different for males and females, and (2) to better understand the relationship among self-control, academic ability and first semester GPA for engineering students. To address the first research question investigating retention, survey responses and data from student records were analyzed using logistic …

Commencement Program 2014 May: College Of Business, The University Of Texas At Arlington

Commencement Programs, Photos, and Video

No abstract provided.

“Why Do You Sing To Me?”: A Case Study Of Form And Function Of Children's Songs In The Caribbean Diaspora Culture In South Florida, Finley Walker

Masters Theses

How does a child gain a musical identity? Music resides in the depths of personhood. Even before birth we are all touched by its power. Music is a language in that it communicates--thoughts, feelings, desires, information, and more. As children grow physically and mentally, they also grow musically. A person's musical development will be directly influenced by their culture and family. The following qualitative study looks at the form and function of children's songs, specifically children's songs from the diasporic Caribbean culture in South Florida. Twenty-one interviews, including 53 participants, were conducted to see how children's songs might play a …

Philosophy, Not Theology, Is The Key For Economics: A Catholic Perspective, Daniel K. Finn

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

This essay addresses two important problems with mainstream economics that reduce its usefulness for people of religious faith: its eclipse of the causal forces operating within the ‘black box’ of the market, and its empiricist methodological underpinnings. Yet neither of these problems requires religious resources for a solution. The critical realist philosophy of science of Roy Bhaskar provides a fruitful alternative to empiricism. The insights of critical realist sociologists to understand markets as social structures provide a helpful way to direct economists’ attention to important but neglected market relations.

Front Matter

Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review

No abstract provided.

Informally Educating The Community: St. Louis Phyllis Wheatley’S Ywca Committee On Administration Speaks On The Decline Of The Organization Through Historical Narratives, Cheryl Denise Osby

Dissertations

Immediately following the end of the Reconstruction period, Negro Americans were forced to live in the second wave of racial bondage resulting from the institutionalization of Jim Crow Laws. For Black females, this bondage carried a double-edged sword, as the weight of this oppression encompassed every aspect of their lives. Unfortunately, many viewed that there was no outlet from this misery. Even before the official end of slavery, free Black women that rose to the middle-class economic status had begun club work and established clubs in their communities. These organizations not only provided a social outlet for these privileged women, …

Nebraska Libraries - Volume 2, Number 2 (May 2014)

Nebraska Libraries

No abstract provided.

A Study Of The Student Retention Programs At Two Different Institutions Of Higher Learning In The State Of Arkansas, Roxanne (Woods) Bradow

College of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative multi-case study was to determine how two universities in the state of Arkansas with differing student demographics approach the problem of student retention in order to increase their graduation rates. College student retention has long been a concern in the United States and in the state of Arkansas. Providing a well-educated workforce is the only way either can thrive in the future knowledge-based economy. The research of Astin (1993), Tinto (1993, 1999, 2005, 2006), Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt & Associates (2005), Pascarella & Terenzini (2005), and others has shown that students choose to discontinue their …

Big Pharma And Big Medicine In The Global Environment, Anne E. Figert, Susan E. Bell

Sociology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In previous work we argued that sociologists need to expand our thinking about pharmaceuticalization, the process of understanding and/or treating social, behavioral, or bodily conditions with pharmaceuticals. The majority of sociological scholarship has investigated pharmaceuticalization as a primarily Western process and conceptualized it in modern terms (Bell and Figert 2010, 2012a, 2012b). In our view, the work of anthropologists and science and technology studies (STS) scholars who decenter the West as the starting point for research opens up new avenues for understanding the global dynamics of pharmaceuticalization. We have also argued in favor of adopting a postmodern theoretical lens which …

"I Want To Be Brave": A Baseline Study On The Vulnerabilities Of Street-Working Boys In Sihanoukville, Cambodia, Jarrett Davis, Glenn Miles, M’Lop Tapang

Annual Interdisciplinary Conference on Human Trafficking: 6th (2014)

Focusing on street-working boys in Sihanoukville, this study partnered with social workers and child protection officers from M’lop Tapang (a key social service provider in Sihanoukville) to identify locations where young boys were known to be working along the beaches and within the town center. In recent years, Sihanoukville has become known as a rapidly developing commercial beach area, which has received increasing attention from foreign tourists, backpackers, and ex-patriots. Within this context, it has become a destination for migrant workers from surrounding provinces who have hopes of generating income through selling, begging, and other various means. The study conducted …

Creating Course Curriculum For A Community College, Carol E. Reis

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

ABSTRACT OF A PROJECT

Creating college courses for a community college is the main focus of this project. The specific college is Erie Community College in Western New York. Three areas of course development that have been targeted are: recreation, creative studies, and therapeutics.

Just as the needs in society change, the need for a college to change to fit the needs of society coexists. A function of higher education is to train students to be competitive in the existing job market. The final outcome of a college certificate and/or degree is best suited to students if the certificates and …

In Search Of Ubuntu: An Examination Of Enslaved African Domestic And Labor Environments On St. Eustatius, Deanna Lynn Byrd

Theses and Dissertations

The discovery of dry stone rock features in the northern hills on the Dutch island of St. Eustatius presented a unique opportunity to investigate an enslaved African environment during the time of enslavement. Abandoned after emancipation, the area has remained virtually undisturbed by eco-tourism, making it an archaeological gem. The intact nature of the sites held potential to add significantly to our understanding of choices enslaved Africans made in slave village design, orientation, and the construction of their dwellings, as well as the labor activities of daily life. In doing so, this investigation attempted to detect whether higher levels of …

Factors Affecting Attitudes Towards Individuals With Schizophrenia: Perceptions Of Mexican American College Students, Valerie Paredes

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study is designed to examine the effects of acculturation and level of familiarity on stigma of Mexican American college students towards individuals with schizophrenia along the border of Texas and Mexico (N = 223). The area has a history of high levels of disparity in regards to the utilization of mental health services. Data was collected by surveying Mexican American college students through a convenience sample at two separate post-secondary southwestern Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) along a border community. The instrumentation for the study was composed of a demographic questionnaire, The Acculturation Scale for Mexican-Americans-II (Cuéllar, Arnold, & Maldonado, 1995), …

Creating The Back Ward: The Triumph Of Custodialism And The Uses Of Therapeutic Failure In Nineteenth Century Idiot Asylums, Philip M. Ferguson

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"My focus in this chapter is on the origin of the back ward rather than its demise. Where did the “back wards” that [Burton] Blatt and [Senator Robert] Kennedy witnessed come from in the first place? What 3 exactly were those “antecedents of the problems observed” that Blatt cited? This chapter reviews that history and argues that, in fact, there is a specific narrative to the evolution of the institutional “back ward” as an identifiable place where people with the most significant intellectual disabilities were to be incarcerated and largely forgotten."

Analyzing The Impact Of Key Factors On An Individual's Life Expectancy From 1991 To 2006 In U.S, Jing Xue

All Theses

Since the 20th century, U.S. health spending has continuously increased, but the residents' life expectancy has not reached the average level of OECD countries. In this paper, hazard duration models are built; primary demographic, geographic, socioeconomic and healthcare factors are taken into consideration. The main purpose of this paper is to study the effect of these factors on an individual's risk of mortality and life expectancy. We build a general model and two gender-specific models. Females are affected by relative deprivation, a measure of their position in the income distribution, much more than males. The effect of family income is …

Commencement Program 2014 May: College Of Engineering, The University Of Texas At Arlington

Commencement Programs, Photos, and Video

No abstract provided.

Commencement Program 2014 May: College Of Nursing, The University Of Texas At Arlington

Commencement Programs, Photos, and Video

No abstract provided.

Commencement Program 2014 May: College Of Education And Health Professions, The University Of Texas At Arlington

Commencement Programs, Photos, and Video

No abstract provided.

The Arts And Social Capital For The American 21st Century: A College Course, Kathleen Escamilla

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

This course is designed to introduce college students to the current significance of the Arts in American civil society. We will begin by examining the concepts of civil society and social capital and their correlations to social well-being. The robustness of voluntary associations is a distinguishing characteristic of American civil society. It is a basis for how we carry out democracy and maintain our common resources. Social capital is the embedded value of our social connections with others. Our mutual trust and reciprocity contributes to the health, wealth, tolerance, and efficient governance of society. We will explore the unique ability …

Green Relationship, Fadel Imad

Theses and Dissertations

Green Relationship is a design solution attempting to raise awareness toward the environment and reduce consumerism. Waste generation and pollution have become major concerns of many governments, municipalities, organizations and individuals around the world since they are affecting human wellbeing and the environment. As an MFA student with VCUQatar, I chose to use design to contribute in protecting the environment hoping to make a difference in life. The thesis includes a research and a design component. The research explores the recycling programs and facilities in Qatar, the governmental and private sector actions toward waste generation and collection, as well as …

Media Framing Of Yusuf Islam’S An Other Cup: Music, Religion, And Narrative Construction, Joshua Hamburg

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.